Copolymers of polar vinyl monomers and non-polar alkene monomers, especially non-polar 1-alkene monomers, have been the subject of research for a long time because the properties of the copolymer can be controlled by combining the very different properties of the starting monomers making them attractive materials for a number of applications. A number of methods have been reported for the copolymerization of acrylates with non-activated olefins. See, for example, S. Meckling et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 888; E. Drent et al, Chem. Comm. 2002, 744; G. Tian et al, Macromolecules 2001, 34, 7656; K. Tanaka et al, Macromol. Symp. 2008, 261, 1; Y. Chen et al, Macromolecules, 2009, 42, 3951; S. L. Bartley, et al, U.S. 2010/0280198; U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,108; R. Venkatesh et al, Macromolecules, 2004, 37, 1226; H. Mei et al, Macromolecules, 2011, 44, 2552; and C. Wang et al, Organometallics, 1998, 17, 3149, for some discussions. Also of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,677,422; 7,884,161; and 4,048,422; EP 1964862; and publications U.S. 2010/0280198 and US2009/0018298.
One approach involves coordination polymerization catalyzed by transition and late transition metals, which appear to be effective for ethylene and α-olefins but polar acrylic monomers generally deteriorate the metal catalysis resulting in the copolymerization being inhibited. This method gives copolymers high in acrylate and low in the olefin content. Another reported approach involves radical copolymerization in the presence of Lewis acids. See the above-shown Y. Chen et al and K. Venkatesh et al. Use of strong Lewis acids was found to be necessary for enhancing the efficiency of copolymerization. However, obtaining copolymers and terpolymers which contain both high molecular weight with high olefin content has been generally difficult. Any success has been successful only with lower olefins such as ethylene and propylene, which too required high pressure conditions.
It would be an advantage to have a convenient process to prepare polymers (such as copolymers, terpolymers and the like) in high molecular weights and with high olefin content.
It would be an additional advantage if the process is economical and possible to be carried out with conventional equipment.
It would be a further advantage if the process is applicable to be used not only with lower olefins such as ethylene and propylene but also with higher olefins such as 1-hexene, 1-octene and the like.
It would be a still additional advantage if the polymers contain crosslinkable functionalities that can be used to further react said polymers with other desired reactants. If would be a further advantage if the process is flexible enough to introduce such crosslinkable functionalities during the polymerization reaction or even after the polymerization reaction by further reacting the polymers.